I still think its important to distinguish between settlements like Clearwine and Runegate and cities like Wilmskirk or Jonstown.
IMO the forts are more like large steads, they are the heorltings villages and small towns, often ancient hill forts, opportunistically reoccupied by the Quivini settlers, centered around the clan on whose tula the fortification lay. Future developments, like the making of a tribe may give others rights to dwell there, and some outsiders will come from the practice of craft and religion, never perhaps sharing in the ownership of the property of the tula, but like cottars still a vital part of the economy.
Buildings there will be much like those in a stead (Try Viking Town by Jacqueline Morley for decent Chidlren's book cut-aways), there is a hearth, though it is smaller, stone-lined fire pit, wattle & daub walls, thatched roofs, and with space for the animals and humans. Dorastor, Land of Doom's Hazard Fort is a good source here, drawn, IMO, from the same sources.
In cities this model would break down. What do we know about the organisation of Sartarite cities? Pavis tells us this:
"The customs of citizenship are inherited from Sartar. There, tradition holds that any man that bears arms, recognizes his kin lord, and tends to his property properly deserves the status of clan citizen and by extension tribe citizen. City dwellers eventually subsituted their city for the clan and tribe".
Agreed, this is some time before KoS or TR, and our understanding has grown. And the implication that Paivs is copying Sartarite cities here, could be my reading. But Dorasor was trying to keep Sartar's traditions and secrets.
But it does give us responsibilites: own land (i.e. carl equivalent status), be employed or have income, pay taxes, bear arms and rights: speak at the assembly (moot), be tried at the citizens court (justice), protection of watch and miltia, become a guildmaster (i.e. a thane equivalent), right to food, the right to a discount on a stone house (though my guess that this may be much moreis Pavisite).
And as these are extensions of the rights and responsibilites of Orlanthi in clans IMO it is a workable model.
Government is by a city council, headed by a mayor for a term of 5 years.The council is drawn from leading families and appoints officials, keeps the peace - again similar enough to the clan structure to be a workable extension of Orlanthi culture in cities.
The Sartarite cities are different in that most are governed by a confederation. In that case replace the leading families with the tribes in the model of appointment of council positions and we have a workable evoloution. This also suggests that 'tribe' may still remain a factor in an urban Heortlings web of loyalties, perhaps an urban Heorlting can be judged by how much they have dropped old clan and tribal identifications in favor of city ones.
There is other useful material in Pavis on the distribution of food and meat to citizens, and buildings (which agree with the supposition that the longhouse is a good model until the second story prevents the fireplace) and there may be a mix therefore of one and two stories, but the Viking wattle & daub and thatched model is still most likely. Pavic houses do not have gardens, partially climatic as well as crowding, I expect the vegatable garden, pig or chickens in the yard to still be common. Pavisites have internal shops, but lack of light means the model seen in Jorvik or Birka is still more likely, many tradesman works in a coverd area outside where the light is better only retreating into a short shop space in inclement conditions. Some specialist like, redsmiths may have a seperate forge.
Cobbles might replace split-path logs in towns for roads. Water tends to be collected in water-towers, wells or cisterns. Houses may be closer together, some almost terraced. Rubbish would tend to litter the streets. (Daily life in Chaucer's England by Singman and McLean is a bit late for Heorltings but is a good source for thinking about this - it also includes comments on recortds of children being bitten by errant pigs wandering into houses).
>Still, the cottar-class population of cities is likely to be greater
than in rural communities,
I expect cottar and carl dissappear. The carl equivalent is the citizen, the cottar, the non-citizen laborer, I'm not sure of the proportion of unskilled labor in this period though. (this does follow the patern of the increasing disparity in Engalnd between the land-owning peasants, the carls, who become yeomen and franklins, and the cottars, who become villeins).
>some urban stead-equivalents with a wide range of "in-house
services" and quite a lot of cottage-equivalents which combine only
workshop and sleeping area.
Agreed. I think the cottages will predominate.
>With the absence of the multi-functional economy of steads,
even everyday activities ...will become cottage industries handled by
specialists, ... Actual exchange of coins might occur, but residents
most likely have a barter or contract system for services and
supplies.
I think the implication for citizens in Pavis is pay your tax in goods and you get basic needs from central distribution, the rest is private to sell for surplus.
Bartering and long transactions are possible though in biger markets transactions are made easier with the exchange of precious metals or gems. Viking cities traded using the exchange commodity of silver, not necessarily coins, sometimes jewelry or blocks, from which chunks were literally 'chopped' and then weighed on small scales (see Morley above). Coinage only comes in when you want to authorize wieghts of those metals and prevent people debasing the currency. Sartar could well have mints in the cities, Anglo-saxon england did after all, churning out the guilders (interestingly coinage was usually only valid for a period of years, after which it had to be returned to the mint, and was reminted, with a cut (a tax) ging t the mint). But the 'guilder' may only be in Heortland, not in Sartar.
>This does however enable a household to concentrate on pursuing its
activity to the fullest.
Economic specialization.
>Fuel has to be "imported", and will be used niggardly.
Uncertain on this, Jorvik and Birka
>"Land ownership" will be personalized
And is the qualification for citizenship.
>A house owner renting out to a cobbler's family might well end up
with a rent paid in pairs of shoes he has to market himself, or he
may demand that the family exchange their shoes for whatever services
or goods the house owner requires.
Hmmm, I expect a cobbler would own his own property, I don't see huge landowners at this point, and Jorvik and others don't seem to imply it. I expect the non-citizens to mainly be labourers, who probably live in the property of citizens, much as cottars will live on steads run by carls or thanes, thugh there are probably also poorer areas where poor tradesmen or laborers live, some jelously proclaiming their citizenship, many too poor to meet the requirements of wealth (taxes and regular and employment) to enjoy it.
>Harst the Reeve might be a common occupational cult in cities, to
keep on top of the exchanges.
and for roles in the city administration, the dishthanes of the city, but see below on notaries.
>It is quite possible that a number of these cottage industries share
a patron who oversees the flow of values.
Well apart from the city tax, this seems fo burdensome a beauracracy, I'm sure the Heortling's gifting culture is able to keep track of who owes what in their heads, and has witnessed, but verbal contracts. There will be a role for lawspeakers acting as public notaries extending that role from the clan.
>The clan trader who drives 20 cattle (i.e. cash) to town will deal
with the butcher's patron or the cattle merchant
See the Pavis book for disribution of food, fish and grain, which usually invlves negotiation with the city.
>Adventurers visiting town ... a ready amount of cash.
Seel the discussion of Silver above.
>Acquisition of services or products on the household tab will need
some precedent or contract. This includes visiting the pub, the
public bath, on occasion the barber, or the specialist magician for a
magical service.
Very few of these are Heortling places. Lawspeakers act as witnesses to public transactions in the clan, a role that may continue, between citizens. between citizens barter, gifting, trust often prevail over silver.
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Ian Cooper
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